PlayStation 4 was all about indie in its earlier years -- with various developers having the chance to get up on Sony's E3 stage and show off their titles to the masses. No Man's Sky was a perfect example of that, an experience that gained huge exposure from its conference success. Some would argue that the hardware manufacturer has moved away from that initiative in the past few years, but it looks like it remains a very clear focus for the Japanese giant.
We can say that because Shuhei Yoshida, the now-former president of SIE Worldwide Studios, has taken up a new role ahead of the PlayStation 5 which will see him "look after and nurture external, smaller independent studios". In a statement given to GamesIndustry.biz, PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan said: "Everybody knows just how passionate Shu is about independent games -- they are lifeblood of the industry, making our content portfolio so special for our gamers."
The new position is said to be all about "celebrating external developers that are creating new and unexpected experiences". This news comes off the back of Hermen Hulst's promotion to Head of PlayStation Worldwide Studios following Shawn Layden's departure last month.
Are you happy that Sony is seemingly focusing on the indie scene once again? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
[source gamesindustry.biz]
Comments 18
This is great to hear. Indie games do a lot to diversify the library and keep it from becoming stale. There is a place for AAA games and a place for low budget indies, as well as everything in between.
Oh yeah, Sony <3 Indies, I remember all that. Honestly, it really kept things ticking over for them during the PS4 has no games period.
He should be great at that job, top man!
Bastion.little nightmares.moonlighter.salt and sanctuary ruiner etc are excellent indie games.so the more the better.word up son
Perfect fit, always seems an approachable guy. Also an advocate of VR so I wonder if that has a bearing too.
@kyleforrester87 What's with the dots on your avatar lol
This is great news.To be honest a lot of the indie games we received on Plus were so much better than some of the big games we had.
@AdamNovice Lol, he has a thing for colons. He loves it when Push Square writes about “Horizon: Zero Dawn“. 😂 It’s his own form of peaceful protest.
@Th3solution Oh right lol
More investment in indies can only be a good thing.
Hopefully this will be part of an overhaul in indie relations wherein they have lost ground with Nindies/ID@xbox type programs. For starters the EU/AU psn storefront not having adopted IARC classification (unlike Switch/xbox), so extra fees getting pegi etc. As a result some indies get delays & others go MIA altogether...that storefront needs fixing!
hopefully he can bring quality indies, and get rid of the crap indies. there have been to many crap indies this gen, it started good but doors open and everything was let in. we dont need quantity, we need quality indies.
Is Shuhei Yoshida in Malaysia currently? Cause a friend of mine told me that Shuhei Yoshida posted picture of the KL Tower on his twitter account.
If Shuhei ever leaves PlayStation I will CRY MY EYES OUT Yes I LOVE him
I remember the first year of my launch PS4, and saying to my online friends, "When are any decent games going to arrive, the majority of what I've seen so far is loads of Indie crap?". Thinking about it, back then reminds me of the state of PSVR now. Subsequently, I was a little disappointed with the first year of PS4, and consequently because of this, it'll probably be a year after the launch of PS5 when I will decide to buy the new console.
Sounds like the perfect job for Shu. I'm glad he's still at PlayStation.
New Dust Elysian Tale. New Never Alone. Abe's Exodus. New Contrast. Crack on, Shu.
Best personnel decision in a while.
i have a few concerns here - shu had done a great job so why move him especially to a lesser role? and finally guerrilla games getting 3 studio heads, unless they are all head different projects thats a recipe for disaster
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